The American Sociological Association (ASA) Style Guide is used primarily by scholars submitting articles to ASA journals, as well as sociology students writing research papers, theses, and dissertations.
This guide will help you format your manuscript and form proper citations. For detailed information about elements of style, including punctuation, biased language, and word usage and spelling, consult the most recent edition of the Style Guide.
Text must be in 12-point Times or Times New Roman font. All text should be double-spaced except for block quotes.
Structure your paper using the following sections:
Click the document below to access the Microsoft Word template for ASA style formatting.
Your instructor's directions for ASA style are more important that the settings on this template. You need to make any necessary changes to match your professor's assignment.
FIRST-LEVEL HEAD
First-level headings are all in caps and left-justified. Start using headings after the introduction.
Second-Level Head
Second-level headings are italicized, left-justified, and all words except prepositions and conjunctions are capitalized.
Third-level head.
Third-level headings are italicized, indented, end with a period, and only the first word and any proper nouns are capitalized.
In-text citations are included in the text of your research paper to document the source of your information.
General Formatting:
Example: When Duncan (1959) studied...
Example: When these relationships were studied (Gouldner 1963)...
Quoting Directly:
When you quote directly from a source, enclose the quoted section in quotation marks. In the in-text citation, include the page number to the standard author/year format.
Example: As tabulated by Kuhn (1970:71) the results show...
Two Authors:
Provide both last names of the authors.
Example: (Martin and Bailey 1988)
Three Authors:
Give all last names in the first in-text citation. Afterwards, use the first author's last name followed by et al.
Example: (Carr, Smith, and Jones 1962) or (Carr et al. 1962)
Four or More Authors:
When there are four or more authors, use the first author's last name followed by et al. in all in-text citations.
Example: (Nilson et al. 1962)
Institutional or Corporate Author
Example: (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1963:117)
Book in Print - One Author
Author last name, first name. Year of publication. Name of Publication (italicized). Location of publisher, state or province postal code or name of country (if a foreign publisher): Publisher's Name.
Example: Maghbouleh, Neda. 2017. The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian Americans & the Everyday Politics of Race. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Book in Print - Two or More Authors
Author1 Last name, First name, and Author2 First name Last name. Year of publication. Name of Publication (italicized). Location of publisher, state or province postal code or name of country (if a foreign publisher): Publisher’s Name.
Example: Edin, Kathryn, and Maria Kefalas. 2005. Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage. Berkeley: University of California Press.
*Include first names and surnames for all authors. Use first-name initials only if an author used initials in the original publication.
More than Three Authors
Author1 Last name, First name, Author2 First name Last name, Author3 First name Last name, and Author4 First name Last name. Year of publication. Name of Publication (italicized). Location of publisher, state or province postal code or name of country (if a foreign publisher): Publisher’s Name.
*In your reference, list all authors, unless there are more than 10. For more than 10 authors, only list the first seven, followed by et al.
Example: Bottomore, T. B., Stefan Nowak, Magdalena SokoĊowska, and International Sociological Association. 1982. Sociology, the State of the Art. London, England: Sage Publications.
Book in Print, Edited
Editor Last name, First name, ed. Year of publication. Name of Publication (italicized). Location of publisher, state or province postal code or name of country (if a foreign publisher): Publisher's Name.
Example: Hagan, John, and Ruth D. Peterson, eds. 1995. Crime and Inequality. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Chapter from a Book
Editor Last name, First name, ed. Year of publication. Name of Publication (italicized). Location of publisher, state or province postal code or name of country (if a foreign publisher): Publisher's Name.
Example: Williams, Susan L. 2001. “City Kids and Country Cousins: Rural and Urban Youths, Deviance, and Labor Market Ties.” Pp. 379-441 in Social Awakening: Adolescent Behavior as Adulthood Approaches, edited by Robert T. Michael. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
eBooks
Author1 Last name, First name. Year of publication. Title of Book (italicized). URL/ DOI.
Example: Armstrong, Kathleen. 2013. Evidence-Based Interventions for Children with Challenging Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7807-2.
Journal Article - Print
Author Last name, First name. Year of publication. "Title of Article." Title of Journal (italicized) Number volume(Issue number):Page numbers.
Example: Murrell, Audrey J., and Erika Hayes James. 2001. “Gender and Diversity in Organization: Past, Present and Future Directions.” Sex Roles 45(5):243-257.
The citation for print and electronic journal articles is the same with the addition of the DOI or permalink at the end of the citation.
Journal Article - with DOI
Example: Ekaterina, Hertog, and Kan Man-Yee. 2021. "Married Adults Coresiding with Older Parents: Implications for Paid Work and Domestic Workloads." Journal of Population Ageing 14(4):507-535. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12062-021-09346-2.
Journal Article - with stable link
Example: Schafer, Daniel W., and Fred L. Ramsey. 2003. “Teaching the Craft of Data Analysis.” Journal of Statistics Education. 11(1). http://amstat.org/publications/jse/v11n1/schafer.html.
Print Newspaper and Magazine Articles
Author Last name, First name. Year of publication. "Title of Article." Title of Newspaper (italicized), Month/date of publication, page numbers.
Example: Samuelson, Robert J. 2001. “Can America Assimilate?” Newsweek, April 9, 42.
Newspaper or Magazine Article - website
Example: Sampson, Robert J. 2006. "Open Doors Don't Invite Criminals." New York Times, March 11. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/11/opinion/11sampson.html.
Newspaper or Magazine Article - library database
Example: Sultan, Aisha. 2012. "Making Your Children Cyber Savvy: Creating a family contract can help with safe online behavior." St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 5.https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A298672981/STND?u=cofc_main&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=484e932f.
Page or Document on a Website - Known Author
Example: John Howard Society of Ontario. 2020. “Our Mission & History.” https://johnhoward.on.ca/jhs-ontario/about-jhs-ontario-missionhistory/
Page or Document on a Website - Created by an Organization
Organization Acronym (Organization’s Full Title). Date of Publication or N.d. when the Date is Unknown. “Title of the Page.” Accessed Date (only if no date of publication can be determined from the website). URL.
Example: WHO (World Health Organization). N.d. “About WHO.” Accessed April 17, 2019. https://www.who.int/about.
Blog Post
Author Last name, First name. Year of publication. "Title of Entry." Name Blog (blog). Date, month. URL.
Example: Kaufman, Peter. 2016. "Us vs. Them: The Dangerous Discourse of Difference." Everyday Sociology. August 4. http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2016/08/us-vs-them-the-dangerous-discourse-of-difference.html.
Social Media Sources
Author. Year posted. "Text of post." Name of social media site, date posted. URL.
Example: NWS Boston (@NWS Boston). 2019. “Mostly sunny skies across the region today with high temps reaching into the 80s! #HappySaturday.” Twitter, July 13, 8:50 a.m. http://twitter.com/NWSBoston/status/115002534402981068
Court Cases
Title of case, volume, publication title, page (year).
Example: Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310 (2010).
Example: Perfect 10 Inc. v. Amazon.com Inc., 487 F.3d 701 (2007).
Example: Van Stelton v. Van Stelton, 904 F. Supp. 2d 965 (2012).
Statute
Example: Child Soldiers Accountability Act of 2008, Public Law 110-340, 122 Statutes at Large. 3735 (2008).
Codes
Example: Homeland Security Organization, 6 U.S.C. 101 (2002).
Government Document - Known Author
Author1 Last name, First name, Author2 First name Last name, and Institution. Year of publication. Title of Document (italicized). Location of publisher, state or province postal code or name of country (if a foreign publisher): Publisher's Name.
Example: Young, Beth Aronstamm, Thomas M. Smith, and National Center for Education Statistics. 1997. The Social Context of Education. Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.
Government Document - Unknown or No Author
Institution. Year of publication. Title of Document (italicized). Location of publisher, state or province postal code or name of country (if a foreign publisher): Parent Institution.
Example: National Institute on Student Achievement, Curriculum, and Assessment. 1999. The Educational System in the United States: Case Study Findings. Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.